I am applying with a 2.9 GPA. Frankly, I didn't think it would be financially possible to attend law school, so I didnt quite apply myself as much as i should have during my undergrad experience. However, things change and I realized that it is a possibility. I graduated from a decent undergrad school in 2011, and worked for 2.5 years doing sales for a company. Now, I am ready to apply. One of the things that I am hoping will be advantageous to me is that I took two years to sort of "grow up" and gain a greater sense of maturity as well as responsibility. Any thoughts on if I should write an explanation in an addendum? I cover some of this in my PS but I am not so sure that I go into enough detail. Also do you think this can help, hurt, or have no affect on my applications? Thanks

PS, I am mostly applying to second and third tier schools in california, and am expecting to get in the low-mid 160s on the feb LSAT.

Last edited by tgs310 on Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think it would be ok to submit one, maybe even that you should. It will not help you, but it may mitigate against some negative assumptions. If you do write one, it should be short, like 3 sentences short: I was immature, I am now more responsible, I will treat law school responsibly.

Again, it's not that this will help you. However, I've heard a few admissions officers mention that they are prone to making negative assumptions when they don't have all the information. Sooooo many people submit GPA addendums; the vast majority are of no benefit and some of them are probably hurtful (if whiny etc.), but in a lot of cases they serve an important function: letting the adcom know what things didn't cause your low GPA.

Yea it would be waaay better if people only submitted these addendums for legit reasons, but the fact is that they are a dime a dozen and mostly say the same things. You could decide not to submit one, but know that your decision may cause the person reading your file to think "I wonder what caused such a low GPA, and how bad could it have been that he didn't write about it" rather than "I'm sure it was immaturity, thanks (applicant) for not wasting my time with an addendum."

This may change depending on your situation and what you say in your PS. Also, if you're a girl then sorry for assuming otherwise.

Pneumonia wrote:I think it would be ok to submit one, maybe even that you should. It will not help you, but it may mitigate against some negative assumptions. If you do write one, it should be short, like 3 sentences short: I was immature, I am now more responsible, I will treat law school responsibly.

Again, it's not that this will help you. However, I've heard a few admissions officers mention that they are prone to making negative assumptions when they don't have all the information. Sooooo many people submit GPA addendums; the vast majority are of no benefit and some of them are probably hurtful (if whiny etc.), but in a lot of cases they serve an important function: letting the adcom know what things didn't cause your low GPA.

Yea it would be waaay better if people only submitted these addendums for legit reasons, but the fact is that they are a dime a dozen and mostly say the same things. You could decide not to submit one, but know that your decision may cause the person reading your file to think "I wonder what caused such a low GPA, and how bad could it have been that he didn't write about it" rather than "I'm sure it was immaturity, thanks (applicant) for not wasting my time with an addendum."

This may change depending on your situation and what you say in your PS. Also, if you're a girl then sorry for assuming otherwise.

I'm not an ADCOM, so I don't know how they think in the absence of information, but I sincerely doubt they will assume worse than immaturity in looking at the pre-break years of college. In fact, having that break suggests either taking a break for personal or financial reasons in my mind, so the worst you could assume there is immaturity IMO. Therefore, under this situation it really won't help and could even hurt because it reaffirms their worst-case scenario while making me continually think about the fact that your GPA sucked.

OP, discussing your immaturity in a GPA addendum is a bad excuse. It suggests that you still haven't figured out an important point: don't focus on the negative in your application. Your GPA is what it is, don't shine a light on it. Unless you have a compelling reason to mitigate the low GPA, it shouldn't be discussed. Leave the GPA alone and focus the rest of your application on the more important "My GPA sucked, but ..." Focus on the reasons they'll want you anyway.

I think that the above is reasonable, but I would still submit one. There is no way that it will hurt you to do so as long as what you submit is literally 3 sentences. It probably won't hurt you to leave it unaddressed either though.